LOS ANGELES – On the surface, the investigation of an alleged terrorism plot involving at least one former California inmate seems to confirm the fear that the nation's prisons may be a breeding ground for terrorists.

Law enforcement officials here have said little about the investigation into potential terrorist targets such as Los Angeles-area National Guard centers and synagogues.

Muslim leaders, as well as some academic experts on terrorism and Islam, question whether the fear of prison-bred terrorism is valid.

"It's pretty doubtful that a sophisticated international terrorist organization is going to be using the good-old American prisons system to do recruiting," said Robert Dannin, a New York-based scholar.

Dannin noted that a significant percentage of inmates are government informants. "How can you trust a plot to them?" he asked.

Officials acknowledged they are looking into whether the alleged plot, which also reportedly targeted an Israeli consulate, was organized by members of a militant Islamic group based at the California State Prison, Sacramento. Three Los Angeles-area men being investigated are in custody, including two arrested and charged in a string of gas station holdups.

Levar Haney Washington, 25, was allegedly part of the prison group known as Jamiyyat Ul Islam Is Saheeh, or JIS, when he was incarcerated. Washington was arrested last month with Gregory Vernon Patterson, 21, and both are in custody at the Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles.

Pakistani national Hammad Riaz Samana, 21, was arrested by federal authorities this month and faces charges that have been filed under seal. Also, two state prison inmates are being scrutinized as part of the investigation.

The allegations seem to support comments that FBI Director Robert Mueller made to the Senate Intelligence Committee: "Prisons continue to be fertile ground for extremists who exploit both a prisoner's conversion to Islam while still in prison, as well as their socio-economic status and placement in the community upon their release."

Fears that Islamic prison groups could foster terrorism have grown since the arrest in 2002 of Jose Padilla, a former Chicago street gang member and former convict who converted to Islam and a few years later allegedly attended an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. Padilla is in jail, accused of plotting to create a crude radioactive device, or "dirty bomb."

Similar concerns were raised after a Muslim chaplain for New York's state prison system was dismissed for allegedly using his position to promote Islamic radicalism.

Richard Reid, the British citizen convicted in a failed shoe-bomb attack aboard an American Airlines flight in 2001, reportedly converted to Islam in prison. At least one of the suspects arrested in the July 21 attempted suicide attacks in London reportedly converted to Islam while behind bars.

After the arrest of Samana became public last week, U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Venice, called for increased scrutiny of possibly radicalized inmates. Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton said he has long believed prisons are fertile ground for terrorists.

Their comments, along with media reports about prison-based JIS, were met with a sharp retort Friday from Southern California Muslim leaders concerned the public is being led to believe Muslim prison chaplains are fomenting terrorism.

"I go to prisons probably more than Chief Bratton and more than Jane Harman," said Shakeel Syed, a Anaheim-based Muslim chaplain for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. "Can that be a breeding ground? Indeed, yes. Has that been the case with Muslims? Indeed, not."

"The prisons are a breeding ground for drugs, for violence, for rape, for gangs, for everything," said Maher Hathout, a senior adviser to the Muslim Public Affairs Council. "There should not be hysteria or fear because we're dealing with that ghost named Islam."

Dannin said the cases often cited by public officials and terrorism experts as proof of possible Islamic proselytizing in prison are incorrect. Padilla did not convert to Islam while in prison, but discovered the religion while living in Florida and working at a Taco Bell, he said.

"People have taken this (tale) of Malcolm X, the one famous example (of a prison conversion to Islam), and built it into a powerful myth," Dannin said.

If indeed there is a problem with radical Islamic elements in prison, Syed said, an April 2004 report by the inspector general of the Justice Department recommended combating the trend by hiring more Muslim clerics.

A spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said there are 30 full-time and part-time Muslim clerics working in the state's prisons.

Brian Jenkins, a terrorism expert who works with the Rand Corp., is among those who believe disaffected prison inmates are susceptible to recruitment by radicals. Jenkins noted many inmates hardly would make ideal members of a terrorist cell.

"They may not necessarily have the same depth of commitment," Jenkins said. "They're often snitches and they ended up in prisons because they're not the smartest criminals in the world."

Regardless of the possible terrorist or religious overtones in the JIS case, some say the investigation serves as a reminder that prison cliques should be watched closely.

"Any group that is proposing violent means to get to their ends is always one we should take more seriously," said Amanda Susskind, the Los Angeles-based regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.